Of the mysterious Night Blooming Cereus, Mary Cappello writes: "The flower fell into our neighborhood like a shooting star." That neighborhood was a working-class suburb of Philadelphia riven by class distinction and haunted by contradiction. In tracing the marks that immigration and assimilation have left on her Italian-American family, Cappello also offers us her family's unsung art-their gardens, letters, and rosary beads-for the lessons they teach us about desire, creativity, and loss.
Cappello's writing shines and, like the flowers she cherishes, offers fleeting glimpses of beauty.--Sara Ivry, New York Times Book Review
"In this remarkable memoir, Mary Cappello explores the legacy of her family with not only grace of style but a kind of grace of being. . . . Fierce, honest, and deeply affecting."--Jay Parini, author of Benjamin's Crossing
"Cappello draws you deeply into her world and rewards you with rich description and sustained motifs. . . . She achieves an illumination that borders on epiphany."--Corene Lemaitre, Philadelphia City Paper
"[A] story about . . . love's possibilities and impossibilities, and the beauty and danger that lurk in the garden of our lives."--Fred L. Gardaphe, Fra Noi
"The literature of immigration has produced such notable works as the novels Giants in the Earth and Call It Sleep. . . . [Night Bloom] can take an honorable place among them."--Whitney Scott, Booklist
Mary Cappello is associate professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Of the mysterious Night Blooming Cereus, Mary Cappello writes: "The flower fell into our neighborhood like a shooting star." That neighborhood was a working-class suburb of Philadelphia riven by class distinction and haunted by contradiction. In tracing the marks that immigration and assimilation have left on her Italian-American family, Cappello also offers us her family's unsung art-their gardens, letters, and rosary beads-for the lessons they teach us about desire, creativity, and loss.
Praise
Cappello's writing shines and, like the flowers she cherishes, offers fleeting glimpses of beauty.--Sara Ivry, New York Times Book Review
"In this remarkable memoir, Mary Cappello explores the legacy of her family with not only grace of style but a kind of grace of being. . . . Fierce, honest, and deeply affecting."--Jay Parini, author of Benjamin's Crossing
"Cappello draws you deeply into her world and rewards you with rich description and sustained motifs. . . . She achieves an illumination that borders on epiphany."--Corene Lemaitre, Philadelphia City Paper
"[A] story about . . . love's possibilities and impossibilities, and the beauty and danger that lurk in the garden of our lives."--Fred L. Gardaphe, Fra Noi
"The literature of immigration has produced such notable works as the novels Giants in the Earth and Call It Sleep. . . . [Night Bloom] can take an honorable place among them."--Whitney Scott, Booklist
Author
Mary Cappello is associate professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
